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I've created the habit of doing every single one of these...just never at the same time. Who says you can't do it all at once? It should be like riding a bike, yes?

Join me in a month of Efficiency and Peace. What do you do that feels really productive with little effort and creates ease and peace in the process? Please share in the comments below. I would love to know!

Here are mine...all starting tomorrow...again! ;)

Things that work miracles in creating peace and efficiency in my life:

1)Meal planning once a week2)Writing MIT list the night before (Most Important Things list- 3 things- that's it!)3)Getting up early...like 5am every day and allowing myself quiet, reflective time, reading or writing time BEFORE the day begins with my girls or the days tasks4) Cutting fruits/veggies, prepping and storing all snack foods for self and girls once a week5)Light exercise...a walk or some yoga poses, shaking or dancing once a day6) Looking at the week ahead on Sunday7) Looking/assessing at finances (personal/biz) every day even if it's a quick check8)Prepping any necessities for girls the night before...dance bags, lunches, etc.9) Meditating at least 15 minutes every morning10) Flexibly blocking my work and Mama schedule and sticking to it, staying singularly focused whether I am with girls or with a client, exercising or online11) Technology breaks. No tech on Sundays and finishing up online by 10pm.

I feel disconnected from my children, still there and going through the motions to feed and bathe them but distant…

And tonight I choose gentleness.

Instead of judging and condemning myself again…

For disengaging…

For self-preserving…

For closing my raw heart…

I forgive.

I walk to fill up another glass of milk and I say…

It is okay.

You can distance yourself. Your heart matters too. So I do.And I soften. And I am gentle… With myself and Even more so with my children. I float up and just keep moving. Allowing this space from the intensity of the ground level…And it is okay.I still love. I still feel peace and presence… I don’t want to stay here forever…Too many years were spent floating and removed. But for tonightIt is okay. It is a welcomed reprieve. An ethereal breath. I love and forgive me tonight.Tonight I let the sadness come.Tonight I choose gentleness.

What is the ONE thing you can do to invite more presence, pleasure and peace into your life? That’s right! Just as the title explicitly states, “sit your butt down!” Meditation. Just the word brings up so many feelings for people. It sounds nice, but what does it really mean and do I REALLY have to let go of ALL my thoughts? Impossible, right?! WRONG. I’m not going to take this time to tell you the thousands of benefits of meditation, the different kinds or products, apps and novelties you can use to enhance your sitting meditation practice. Here are some links for those who are interested:http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070http://www.mindvalley.com/blog/announcements/the-greatest-innovation-in-meditation-in-3000-years/http://noetic.org/topics/meditation/ I AM going to give you simple steps that anyone can do no matter rich or poor, stationary or mobile, ridiculously busy or perfectly balanced.Here is a short simple guide to sitting meditating: 1) IMPORTANT: Give yourself permission to just sit. This is crucial as our western mind is always coming up with better things to do with our time before we’ve even fully experienced what is right in front of us…what we are doing right now. So trust you inclination to just sit and that all good things will come from it! It sounds something like this in your head – “All I have to do for the next 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes is sit and breathe.”

Then if your mind still needs a reason – “I am doing more good for myself, my family and the world in these 5 minutes than I am rushing around like a like a crazy person for two hours not really accomplishing anything of meaning!”2) You guessed it! Sit your ass down! Here’s the kicker – it doesn’t’ matter where! You can make a “sacred space” or alter or find a beautiful setting for sure, but I can tell you I wasted years NOT meditating looking for the perfect spot! I used to sit under our fig tree but since we moved into a 700 square foot apartment, I now wake up, put my butt on the pillow my head was just laying on and sit criss-cross-applesauce first thing in the morning. You can sit on your patio, on the floor, next to your kids as they drift of to sleep…. it doesn’t matter, just SIT STILL.

3) Sit as tall as you can, spine towards the sky. If this is uncomfortable, then screw it! Just sit. :)

4) Close your eyes. Um, yeah, that’s it. J :)

5) Breathe. In and out. Inhale and exhale. You do NOT have to breath any particular way! If your mind needs something to do simple say to yourself, “I am breathing in” (yep, when you are indeed breathing in) and “I’m and breathing out” (you guessed it, when you are exhaling). That’s it.

6) ***EXTRA CREDIT FOR YOU OVER ACHEIVERS***SMILE! :)Do it once a day for a week and I would love to hear about your experience in the comments below! Do you think anyone could do this? Too hard? Too easy? Just right? Thanks for making the world a better place by sitting yo’ ass down!

Happy New Year! This post is inspired (read poured onto my notebook) by the 10th week and final week of The Presence Process. If you often find yourself seeking appreciation and approval of what you do, what you know or who you"be" in this crazy world this post is for you. Through writing this, I was able to FINALLY feel and embody appreciation of myself last Thursday morning. Perhaps you won't have to take yourself though such an intense process and purging in order to embody this by writing your own letter.

Dear Leslie,

I appreciate that you lose sleep over minor injustices done to kids on the playground and brainstorm ways to make it right in the wee hours of the morning.

I appreciate that you see clearly the illusion of separation between humans as well as between humans and nature. I appreciate that you try to fill in the gap with love, acceptance and truth and fiercely commit to shaking people (however ineffective sometimes) from their slumber.

I appreciate that you feel things deeply, sometimes painfully, blissfully and almost always viscerally. I appreciate that you attempt to communicate these Oneness experiences with the intent that others may understand the ridiculousness of continuing the belief of the illusion of our separation.

I appreciate that although you fail over and over in filling this gap...bridging the worlds, that you continue to try over and over (many times to your own detriment and that of your family).

I appreciate the purity of your intentions and motivations.

I appreciate the love you feel to and through your bones for humanity and the earth.

I appreciate that it feels hard sometimes to not have this recognized consistently by the outer world.

Dearest Leslie,

I now give you permission to just be.

You have in your body the perpetual feeling of love for other and world, I now give you permission to stop trying,

to stop filling,

to stop bridging,

to stop fighting,

to stop sharing,

to stop talking,

to stop proving,

to stop giving away the love and peace and presence that has been gifted you from God and the Universe.

I give you permission to hold that love, presence and peace in the chambers of your physical body,

allowing them to filter through every system, replenishing and growing to overflow so that your be-ing becomes a natural expression of service, love and peace wherever you go.

For lifetime upon lifetime I was nurtured, grown, groomed, prompted, forced, beaten, raped and tortured, encouraged and demanded, patronized and cohered into being a very strong and powerful woman.In THIS lifetime, being a strong and powerful woman has meant fitting into the masculine archetype, structure, idea and reality of what strong and powerful mean.My body is beginning to violently reject the generations of control and even the subtle (cordial) manipulations of our current time and space. I forgot my indigenous and tribal roots!My natural and animalistic blueprint that burns from the depth of my being… “You have given life to ALL!” Today I remember. I let my rage, anger and fear teach me.I allow it to come to the surface, be expressed!I have felt remorse and become curious… Curious about “why” it was even there and “how” to tame it (NO MORE TAMING)! And I felt, really felt and I remembered…and I lived….and I learned...am learning. In this lifetime I am again made to be a strong and powerful, influential leader!Yet there are no maidens waiting to brush and braid my hair, bath my body and anoint my feet.There is no one to tighten my corset and arrange my features in a statuesque manner as to please the men and masses. It is up to me to care, to take extreme and luscious care of myself. This is my work. I have ruled over souls and kingdoms.I have been the muse and master.I have been the willing courtisane and confidant of many through which my hidden voice made it to the ears that mattered. Yet I have never ruled over my own body. This is my work. I have held meetings in public and in secret, led counsels, kept schedules and agendas to meet the expectations of armies and royalty.I have had time and space handed to me on an elusive golden platter that dictated my comings and goings to the good of all! And now my body yearns for timelessness. My body desires to feel safe enough to relax, receive and return to it the compassion that sustained empires. And that is my work. To dispel the illusion of my own mind and practice – every day and every moment caring immaculately for my own body, mind and soul. To relax into my reality to allow the show to go on…because it must. It must go on and I am the river, trees, mountains, caves and fields of wildflowers through which it lives. My body, my sacred system cared for exquisitely can and will contain the illusion as it undoes itself. No more fighting.No more rage. Only unwinding…and peace.

It has been quite the month! Between the eclipse sandwich (2 solar and 1 lunar), my birthday and the powerful solstice energy in June I have felt A LOT of shifting as I try to live my life more presence, pleasure and peace! For me it has felt like I've been coming in for a "landing." I've been feeling the Earth's energy draw me close and closer. It's been calling me to live from my lower chakras (of rootedness, creativity and power) to balance the "floatier" energies of heart, head and beyond! I've been feeling a call to "anchor in" (whatever that means). ;)

Maybe you have felt it too?!

Or maybe you've been feeling the urge to let go, allow, to "fly!"

So today was "landing day" for me! I have never felt so grounded and in my body EVER...and it feels really good! I can feel my feet on the ground (literally) for the first time and there is a pleasant heaviness to my mass of of cells and organs that lets me know I am even MORE fully alive than before.

One of the main things I stress in sessions with clients is to trust their own instincts and inner wisdom. So today, my body, my wisdom is calling me to enjoy, relish and be present to this transition and integration of more of me. Although there are many things to do...I am going to joyfully listen. This means going offline until Monday (at least) and just being very present in my body!

Neat - huh? :)

I'm excited to dive into the new space we just created for messiness and art with my two amazing daughters and really get my hands dirty. I'm excited to be amazed at the way my clothes feel on my skin and the way my hair brushes against my shoulders...all things I have never really felt. I feel like I am home again and I want to be present to it, extract every ounce of pleasure from it and rest in the peace of knowing I listened...really listened to the wisdom of my body and soul. I look forward to sharing more of this journey with you.

Until then, please let me know how you have been experiencing your own life. Have you felt a shift? Are you feeling more open...expansive? Have you constricted any areas of your life? Please leave a comment below and I look forward to connecting next week!

Last week I blogged about Alignment #1 for living a more authentic life. These are rules I "officially" lived at Eden Unplugged in a small community of evolutionary entrepreneurs for three days and nights. They also represent the genuine feeling of self-awareness and community that was the real education students received in my classroom as a teacher of young souls...solving equations was secondary. :) I'm so excited to share them with you and have already received amazing feedback about peeps actually applying these principles to their lives and seeing results! Woo hoo!

Alignment #2: Don't Do What You Don't Want To Do!

Now I was thinking to myself, this is the same as the first alignment and I really like to keep things positive rather than tell people what NOT to do. But there are a few important distinctions I would like to highlight here.

Those of you who have ever said to yourself...

I have to...

I should...

I'm supposed to...

I always get roped into...

I hate doing this but...

I don't really want to but...

then you are doing things that ARE NOT serving your highest interset and robbing you of more PRESENCE, PLEASURE and PEACE right now!

No more obligations!

Here's the subtlety -

Alignment #2 is about you CEASING from doing the things you don't really want to do and

It has been quite an adjustment this last month after returning from Eden! It's like I was on a natural high immediately when I returned...and then my body was like, wait, this is TOO good and I created situations in my life to screw myself out of manifesting in my "real" life all the wonderful things that happened inside me at Eden!

It can look like picking a fight with your partner (this is my fav...blah...poor Steve), procrastinating, yelling at your kids, overeating, not taking care of yourself, really anything that will keep you from focusing on making positive change in your life and bring you right back down into the muckity-muck! I've felt this many times before I know I'm supposed to step into something bigger. It feels like you're being stretched from the inside out.

Why? Because you're expanding into new uncharted territory!!! Exciting but oh-so-scary too!

So instead of heading back to where I feel "comfortable" (which actually, after fighting about the dishes for the 400th time, I realized, really actually sucks!) I've begun LIVING what I learned at Eden and wouldn't ya know, I'm right back on track and ready to share it with ya'll.

So here a simple tool we used regularly at Eden Unplugged and I have used in many other arenas in my life throughout the years!

This works at home, work, social gatherings, classrooms, with kids, with cranky spouses, with friends and strangers alike! And yes, I've tried it with all of the above!

So please, for God's sake and your sanity,

try this at home! :)

Circle Time!

1) Sit or stand in a circle...yes, that's right, just like in kindergarden! (also works with two people, so no excuses :)).

2) Take a deep breath together. Do it a few times if it feels a little weird. (yes, we did this in my junir high classromm almost every day)

3) Invite everyone to check in or pay attention to how their body is feeling (giggle, giggle). This could mean physically, energetically, if there is pain, or excitement in the belly, light headed, nervous energy, etc.

4) Invite everyone to share.

a) Name

b) How there are feeling in there body and

c) if there is anything keeping them from feeling completely present right there and then.

Or come up with a question of your own. We used "What inspired you to come" at our last community gathering and it was so incredible to watch people (many complete strangers) simply begin to connect...

authentically...

by just sitting in circle together!

Try it. You might like it! :) Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below! :)

Having been raised a Roman Catholic, this week marks the beginning of the holy season of Lent. If you celebrate Lent you may be giving up something (like chocolate or coffee) for 40 days and 40 nights and abstaining from meat on Fridays. Some of us even attend a service, get ashes swept across our foreheads (a sign that we will return to dust) and listen to readings about how we should foresake all things religious? Huh? lol

As a child, Lent always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It’s like the season went against the very truth of who I was! As children we are naturally drawn to celebrate...everything! I don't know a child that comes to sacrifice very naturally. Lent is a time for repentance...for sacrificing to God and many people interpret this as sacrificing worldly pleasures...as if worldly pleasures were bad! And all this at a time when the flowers are beginning to bloom, the birds are singing and the energy of the Universe is "twiterpated!" It's like the world is just beckoning you to indulge!

So whether or not you’re frying fish up on Fridays or not, I wanted to leave with just a few things to ponder…

1) Yes, we are dust... AND stardust ! You are the Dark but you are also the Light! And that’s okay…it’s perfect!

2) What if…just what if nothing you could do in this life time would EVER offend, hurt or shame the Ulmighty God of All…or this All Loving Universe! Just what if?

3) If you integrated these two thoughts, how would that change your life? How would you FEEL? How would you interpret the things that “happen” to you or others? Would it change the way you live your life?

I for one will be enjoying the pleasures of this amazing realm we call Earth. After all, we have chosen to be an intimate and integral part of it…I hear my fair trade, sustainably harvested organic dark chocolate calling now! :)

Ashes to ashes…stardust to stardust…smile to your heart that carries both!